Full Blue Racing - 2024 Competition Report

The summer of 2024 was the biggest milestone in the history of Full Blue Racing. Our car successfully passed all stages of scrutineering at both FS Netherlands and FS Spain, and finally had the opportunity to show its true potential in all four of the dynamic events - a feat achieved by few teams. The FBR24 was a huge step forward from its predecessor, both in performance and reliability. We iterated on the simple and light design philosophy of the FBR23, and rigorous test days exposed critical issues to fix while also providing drivers with vital practice to get to grips with the unique experience of driving a Formula Student car.

Netherlands

In July, the team headed to TT Circuit Assen for the FS Netherlands competition. Formula Student cars are tasked with completing four dynamic events: skidpad, acceleration, sprint, and endurance. Three gruelling days of getting the car up to the scrutineers’ meticulous standard left no time to participate in skidpad, so the team instead prepared the car for acceleration. With all eyes on the only British team’s car as it pulled up to the start line, it roared down the 75 metre straight in 5 seconds, securing valuable competition points and delighting the team and spectators alike.

Up next was the sprint event - one lap around the circuit at full pelt, where cold tyres and an unfamiliar track layout provide a serious challenge for the drivers. Despite a successful run, the post-event scrutineers found a single bolt on the underside of the car that marginally poked below the minimum allowed ground clearance, resulting in a DQ and zero points for that event.

A day later we rolled up to the start line of the 20 lap endurance event, which proves a serious challenge for even the best teams in the world. One-off prototype cars are unsurprisingly prone to reliability issues, especially at the first competition of the season. Only 2 of the 8 combustion teams would complete endurance at FS Netherlands. The Formula Student gods were not on our side that day, and the coolant system sprung a leak halfway through the run, resulting in another DNF and an overall ranking of 6th. If luck had been on our side, we could have been fighting for a podium, but that’s how motorsport goes. While we left the competition heartbroken over what could have been, we knew we would have another shot in Spain only two weeks later, with everything to play for.

Spain

The team arrived at Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya, mid heat wave, once again as the only British team. Sun cream in hand, we bashed through scrutineering very quickly and prepared the car for racing. Finishing only 0.8 seconds behind the top team in skidpad and 1.2 seconds behind in acceleration left us with a good handful of points, and of course plenty of happy faces seeing the car alive on track. Both the sprint and endurance events saw yet more successful finishes, but an issue with the shutdown circuit found in post-event scrutineering after endurance meant more competition points were sadly lost. Nevertheless, this was the first time the car has finished endurance in the team’s history, the joy of which could not be taken away. Our final ranking in Spain was a respectable 10th out of 18.

Looking forwards

Given the significantly higher standard of Formula Student in Europe compared to the UK, the team’s result is by far the best in its history. With lots of running of the car comes lots of driver feedback, and a long list of specific ways to improve performance and handling for next year. Design work of our 2025 challenger is already underway and we are aiming for a top 10 finish at our return to FSUK in Silverstone next July.

We would like to extend our thanks to all of our sponsors for making it possible for us to build a race car and compete in competitions against other universities. Your contributions have been crucial to our success this year and we look forward to growing and improving even more in the future.